After leaving Bandhavgahr, we drove to the airport Khajuraho. We managed to leave early enough to have a little while to visit the temples. There are 25 temples built over about a 1000 year span of time, and they were "lost" for 1100 years until they were rediscovered (as I recall) by the British building the railroad. The temples celebrate the creation aspect Hinduism. Photos forthcoming... [View Full Entry]

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Last week, after leaving Chitvan Suites at Pench Nat'l Park (a fantastic hotel), we drove to Bandhav Villas at Bandhavgarh Nat'l Park. The drive... Driver has black hair, partially died orange. His style is to excellerate as much as possible whenever possible, to lurch to a halt when necessary, and to whirl within milimeters of cars, trucks, bikers, adult pedestrians, children, cows, dogs, goats and squirrels. Common refrains: "Ahh," "Ugg," "Oh my god," "Did you hit it?" and "That's too close. Please don't do that again." The drive between the parks took over 8 hours, when we were expe [View Full Entry]

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In photos, the Taj usually looks rather cheesy. It's amazing in person. I had to go to the dentist in Agra. It turned out to be a fairly pleasant experience, cost me only 100 rupees, plus 100 rupees at the chemist shop, and relieved the problem. [View Full Entry]

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We were only in Delhi to go to and from the airport. Laura and I will be back though. In the course of our driving we saw: --a family of five riding one motorcycle --cows grazing in a 3 sq ft median strip --a camel train --a polo team riding down the street --painted (literally) horses and donkeys --a guy carrying mattresses on his bicycle [View Full Entry]

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The Oberoi Hotel is beautiful and, as almost everywhere in India, the staff is really amazing. The restaurants are great too. [View Full Entry]

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The "Red Fort" is actually a fortified castle, which was constructed by a series of Mughal kings, including the designer of the Taj Mahal, Shah Jahan. Maharaja Shah Jahan was ultimately placed under house arrest in the fort by his son, Aurangzeb, after Aurangzeb executed his brother and seized power. The fort includes a moat, drawbridge, and the places for archers to launch attacks. The Indian military still uses much of the fort today. [View Full Entry]

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Day 9: Oct. 11 -- Kahna Nat'l Park, Chitvan Lodge My last entry was very brief because I was whisked away to dinner. The Lodge has been over the top. We have a wake up call at 5 am, and are served tea and coffee as requested. By 5:30, we load into a jeep to go for a nature drive. Mid-morning, in the park, we have breakfast, consisting of hard-boiled eggs, paneer on white bread sandwiches, tea, coffee, crackers, English biscuits/cookies, and fruit. We drive in the park looking at birds, flowers, spiderwebs, barasinghr (yes, I think I spelled it right), [View Full Entry]

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Oct. 9, 2008 (Laura's 40th birthday) -- Presently Kahna Nat'l Park; came today from Indira _____ Pench Nat'l Park The lodge we are at is fantastic. Very beautiful. I just finished a cooking lesson. The chef showed me sauces for vegetables and bread today. Tomorrow, dessert and meats. They will give me the recipes before I leave. Yesterday, in Pench, we saw Tiger! She was beautiful, napping under a lantana vine. We took the jeep nearby and then road an elephant into the vine. Tigers can also be sighted by chance on or near the road, but when it is [View Full Entry]

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We initially thought that at the beginning of the trip, we were in the midst of the Duwali festival. But, it later became ambiguous what festival this was. In Mumbai and Nagpur, we were told that it's Duwali but in Delhi, we were told that it was the Festival of Lights, and that Duwali is something else. In any event, the festival seemed to span about the first 7-8 days of our trip. That's one of the things about Hinduism that makes it so confusing for Westerners. There are enormous regional variations, and the same thing may have a different name [View Full Entry]

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Oct. 7, 2:40 a.m. We depart for Nagpur this morning. Our flight is at 7:05, but we leave the hotel at 4:30 because of traffic. Yesterday, we toured. The photos capture the experience better than I can, with the exception of dinner (because I didn't photograph it)-- we ate in the hotel's Chinese restaurant. I ordered the capsicum because Í had never tried it, and none of us knew what it was. We all liked it. Turns out, it's bell pepper. We also had avocado cheese cake for dessert. Frank and I liked it; Laura thought it had an aftertaste, Susan [View Full Entry]

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